Lazio Favourites to Progress to Europa League Semi-Finals

Two Europa League regulars, S.S. Lazio and Red Bull Salzburg are meeting in the tournament quarter-final, with the first leg match being played in Rome on April 5th.

The two are, more often than not, part of the Europa League mix, but to be in the quarter-finals is an achievement for both teams. This is the second time among the last eight for Lazio and the very first time for Salzburg, since the new tournament format was implemented.

Lazio are currently 5th in the Italian Serie A standings, one point behind Inter and three points behind 3rd place Roma. Simone Inzaghi's team topped their Europa League group and went on to eliminate FCSB and then Dynamo Kyiv.

Salzburg have a firm grip on their fifth consecutive Austrian League title, a trophy they have won eight times since 2006/07. Salzburg also won the last four league cups. Needless to say, they are the dominant team in Austrian football. Salzburg finished atop of their Europa League group, following that with aggregate victories over Real Sociedad and more impressively, Borussia Dortmund.

The Italian side are the favourites to win at home and make their way to the semi-finals.

Lazio team market value of €315m is over six times greater than Salsburg's €49m, if we go by the Transfermarkt data. Lazio's forward Ciro Immobile is a scoring machine and he currently leads the Serie A top goalscorer list with 24 goals to his name. The team's central midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic is one of football's biggest prospects and his signature is chased by the European elite.

It is interesting to note that Salzburg are 2nd Red Bull energy drink owned club, next to Leipzig, that is in the Europa League quarter-finals. This is quite an achievement for Salzburg, with no well-known players on the team sheet.

It will be interesting to see how things play out in this tie. Will Lazio dominate as predicted, or are we in for a surprise?